The Lions lost to the Southern Utah Thunderbirds on the road last Saturday 28-23.
The game started close until the second half when the Thunderbirds scored 14 straight points to win the game. Head Coach Ron Roberts believes they lost to a good team.
“We made some improvement in Special Teams,” said Roberts. “We played a good team and had our chances to win it.”
The Lions start the season 0-2 for the first time since 2012. The team won back-to-back conference championships in 2013 and 2014, but could not repeat that success for a third consecutive year. Every game going forward this season will be a conference game and a race to the Southland Conference Championship.
“Preseason is over and now we play for all the marbles on the table,” said Roberts.
Senior quarterback Justin Alo played his first career start in this game. Alo threw for 275 yards on 18-of-31 passing and threw two touchdowns.
“Justin Alo did a great job in his first start,” said Roberts.
The Lions had 411 yards of total offense. Senior wide receiver Brandon Acker finished with eight catches and 148 yards. Junior wide receiver Juwan Dickey had five catches and 88 yards.
Both players caught the two touchdowns in the game thrown by Alo. Senior running back Rasheed Harrell ran his first touchdown of the season for five yards. He finished the game with 36 yards.
The defense gave up 437 yards to the Thunderbirds offense. Junior defensive back Max Lyons led the secondary in tackles with 11. Junior defensive back Ryan Sigers had 10 tackles. Junior defensive backs Torrance Mosley and Javon Tillman both had nine stops.
The Lions will be on a bye this week and will return for their first home game on Sept. 24 at 7 p.m. at Strawberry Stadium. The game will be against Northwestern State and will be the Lion’s first conference game of the season.
“Our guys are excited to come back home and play in front of our fans,” said Roberts. “It is always a great game with Northwestern. I expect it to be a very physical and exciting football game and we will need our home field advantage.”
Along with the game, the Lions will be having Faculty and Staff Appreciation Day. All Southeastern faculty and staff can receive two free tickets to the game just by showing their campus ID at the Southeastern Athletic Ticket Office.